


i’ll tell the world you’re coming home

by houndstooth



Category: Great Pretender
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Missing Scene, makoto is mentioned but not really present lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-12
Updated: 2020-06-12
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:14:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24665209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/houndstooth/pseuds/houndstooth
Summary: Ever the skeptic, though her worry wasn’t without merit. As much as Edamura could handlehimself, the intricacies of the operation relied more upon a team effort than anything else. If they got thrown too far off track, it wouldn’t spell anything good. He’d already gone ahead and done something rather unpredictable.Laurent idly twirls the pencil between his fingers. “He won’t.”The Sakura Magic job opens new doors.
Comments: 10
Kudos: 91





	i’ll tell the world you’re coming home

**Author's Note:**

> this is really just me trying to figure these characters out but i love all of them deeply so much

”Perfect. I’ll be on the next flight down, then,” Laurent says. “Thanks for all your help.”

The line clicks dead and he sets his phone down on the table. He sighs and looks out the window, resting his head in his hand. The sun had long dipped below the horizon, the sky gently becoming overcome with twinkling stars as the night follows the sunset. 

In two days’ time he’d have one Makoto Edamura under his thumb, and the Cassano job would be neatly wrapped and tied with a bow at the end of the week. 5 million dollars in one easy swing, and little trouble to show for it.

He and Abby would be nothing but leaves in the wind by the time Cassano would have figured out Sakura Magic was nothing but sweet, simple candy and Dr. Makoto Edamura licensed in nothing close to resembling pharmaceuticals.

From what Kudou and Shi-won had been telling him, Makoto had all the makings of an adept con man; really, all his faults came from being a little rough around the edges — petty work like what he’s been doing meant nothing when it came to huge jobs.

As long as he did his part, everything would work out perfectly.

* * *

Makoto Edamura had not played his part as Laurent had expected him to. No, he had veered amazingly off script in a way that he hadn’t even thought to expect.

“I do want to see how far he’ll go,” Laurent says, draining the last of the wine in his glass. He sets it aside and picks up a pencil, absentmindedly scratching something onto a napkin. “We made a bet, and he seems very determined to win it.”

“Another one of your stupid whims, then,” Abby sighs. She was doing that a lot these days; she never was fond of babysitting duty. “What will we do if he messes everything up again?”

Ever the skeptic, though her worry wasn’t without merit. As much as Edamura could handle _himself_ , the intricacies of the operation relied more upon a team effort than anything else. If they got thrown too far off track, it wouldn’t spell anything good. He’d already gone ahead and done something rather unpredictable.

Laurent idly twirls the pencil between his fingers. “He won’t.”

“You’re awfully confident in him, aren’t you? He’s already gone and promised Cassano the _formula_ \-- which, you know, we don’t actually have,” Abby points out. Annoyance edges her voice, and he could already imagine the pointed glare she was sending his way. 

Good thing they _weren’t_ face to face, actually. 

“We’ll just have to follow through with where that leads us, don’t we?” Laurent answers. Inconvenient, sure, but nothing they couldn’t handle with a little bit of extra work. “We’ve been in tight spots plenty of times before. Wouldn’t be here if we couldn’t handle it.”

“You’re right — _we_ have. Not him,” she says back. “Hardest decision he’s probably had to make is what color underwear to put on in the morning or something.”

She had a point. As much as Laurent could try and help him steer their little boat, if Makoto refused to do his part — which was integral to the whole deal — it could end up with everyone drowning. Lots of things could go wrong very quickly if he got too full of himself. He also _did_ leave a lot to be desired in the ‘thinking ahead’ department. He was very much an unpolished gem — full of indescribable beauty, but one had to work really hard to get it to show through. 

And that would mean the difference between succeeding or getting beat to death with a baseball bat, or however the hell Cassano was feeling like punishing traitors that day. 

Laurent hums. Yeah, he could understand Abby’s frustration. They were supposed to have finished this particular job much earlier, but thanks to Makoto, had found themselves into a deeper and more complex con. That did also mean more money to be had, however. $10 million, up from $5 million, especially from a money hawk like Cassano, was nothing to sneeze at. “You think he’ll end up costing us the job?”

Abby doesn’t answer immediately. The ticking of the clock fills up the silence; he glances at it, somewhat surprised to see _11:36 PM_ blinking back at him. 

"That’s up to you, isn’t it?” she finally says, her voice hard. “You’re the one who brought him on."

"Your lack of confidence wounds me, Abby,” he says, feigning hurt. "If you don’t believe in Edamura, at least believe in _me_."

"Like hell I will," she answers. "I’ll believe in him _and_ you when all of this ends, and I’m as far away from Cassano as humanly possible."

Laurent chuckles, setting the pencil back on the table. "Well then, we’ll all have to just play our parts as perfectly as we can. Just a little bit more; we’re in the final stretch."

“Right.” She sounds completely unconvinced. A muffled voice comes through the other end, and Abby replies back to them rather sharply. She sighs. “We’ll talk more later. _Someone’s_ starting to get on my nerves.”

Laurent chuckles. “Right. Have a good night, Abby. We have a busy day tomorrow.”

“Yeah, night.”

The line clicks off and Laurent places the phone down on the table. 

Makoto Edamura was their ticket to finishing all of this. Like Abby made sure to remind him over and over, he was inexperienced — and certainly not as privy to what exactly Laurent had up his sleeve to make sure everything worked out like it was supposed to. His inexperience, though, was a great tool that Laurent could exploit. It would just make it all the more believable in the end. Laurent smiles, another idea starting to form in his head.

He'd have to give Cynthia a call.

* * *

It ends, of course, with Cassano behind bars, the rest of them safe and celebrating the job’s resounding success at Cynthia’s villa, and $110 million dollars combined in their pockets. Salazar had made it out, too, free to watch Tom grow up.

Makoto had stood stock still in the middle of the festivities like a deer caught in headlights, even when Laurent had given him a considerable share of the spoils and complimented him on a job well done. He’d only managed a faint “Thank you” and allowed himself to be steered towards the table stuffed with food by Cynthia. 

Laurent didn’t blame him. What Makoto had been doing before had been nothing but petty crime. Small. Useless in scale. A means to carve out a space for himself in a world that remained unfair despite all attempts to work with it. This was his first taste of an actual job — a job with stakes not just in payout, but in life and death as well. 

A taste that Laurent could only hope would lead him to seek out more.

Makoto had a good head on his shoulders, and had been pretty resourceful — even if they had meant they had to do a little extra work to make sure everything went according to plan. Still, what was this life without a little thrill, a little bit of uncertainty?

He finds Abby hanging around outside, away from the crowd, her legs swinging back and forth from her seat on the balcony.

The sun was setting on pristine waters, the fading light warm on his skin. He relaxes against the rails of the villa’s balcony, smiling down at her. “Still on the fence about him?” Laurent asks.

She doesn’t look at him. “Absolutely.”

No surprise there. Laurent continues, unperturbed by her frostiness. “I did find it charming how devastated he was when we died. Really sold the whole deal, don’t you think?”

“It only worked because you didn’t tell him about it.”

Laurent beams at her. “That’s true — and everything ended up working out in the end as a result, right? He really is a amusing fellow.” 

Abby looks up at him. She squints, first at him, then back at the villa, then back at him. Slow realization dawns on her face. “...Don’t tell me you’re thinking of having him join us officially.”

“A bet is a bet, Abby,” Laurent responds. “And per the terms of the bet, he’s my _underling_ now.”

She _hmphs_ and crosses her arms. “He was just lucky this time around.”

“Nothing a little experience won’t fix. He has potential.”

Abby starts to count off on her fingers. “He panics too easily. He speaks terrible English. He probably wouldn’t know what makes a good con even if it hit him square in the face.”

Good thing Makoto was inside rather than hearing all of this.

“Nothing you say will convince me otherwise,” Laurent sing-songs. “Feel free to keep going, though.”

She glares at him. "Whatever," Abby says, getting to her feet. "Do what you want. I just hope you're ready for the consequences." 

He shrugs lightly. "I wouldn’t be here if I couldn’t."

Laurent watches her disappear back into the villa, probably to organize her stuff to get ready to leave. It was true that he was heading into the dark here, offering an outsider like Makoto the opportunity to join their little group permanently. Whether or not he would take to it as quickly and neatly as he should all depended on him, of course.

"I have high hopes for you, Makoto,” he murmurs. 

Hopes, and plans. 


End file.
